Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of one-to-one learning for pupils who need to catch up on time missed in school as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department is investing over £1 billion in tutoring via its flagship National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has seen nearly five million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over two million in each of the last two academic years. In the current academic year, 346,000 courses have started up to 5 October 2023. Just under half of pupils who have received tutoring are disadvantaged, which means that the programme is disproportionately targeting these pupils.
There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate academic progress. The Education Endowment Foundation has found that, on average, pupils who receive small group tutoring may make four months additional progress. The department’s external evaluation of year two of the NTP, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research, shows that School Led Tutoring has had a positive impact on pupil attainment at both key stage 2 and key stage 4.
The department’s Implementation and Process Evaluation for the third year of the programme found that 78 per cent of senior leaders, teachers and tutors perceived that the NTP had a positive impact on pupils’ attainment and that 74 per cent felt the NTP was helping to reduce the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the National Tutoring Programme in closing the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department is investing over £1 billion in tutoring via its flagship National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has seen nearly five million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over two million in each of the last two academic years. In the current academic year, 346,000 courses have started up to 5 October 2023. Just under half of pupils who have received tutoring are disadvantaged, which means that the programme is disproportionately targeting these pupils.
There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate academic progress. The Education Endowment Foundation has found that, on average, pupils who receive small group tutoring may make four months additional progress. The department’s external evaluation of year two of the NTP, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research, shows that School Led Tutoring has had a positive impact on pupil attainment at both key stage 2 and key stage 4.
The department’s Implementation and Process Evaluation for the third year of the programme found that 78 per cent of senior leaders, teachers and tutors perceived that the NTP had a positive impact on pupils’ attainment and that 74 per cent felt the NTP was helping to reduce the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with headteachers on the effectiveness of one-to-one learning for pupils who need to catch up on time missed in school as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department is investing over £1 billion in tutoring via its flagship National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has seen nearly five million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over two million in each of the last two academic years. In the current academic year, 346,000 courses have started up to 5 October 2023. Just under half of pupils who have received tutoring are disadvantaged, which means that the programme is disproportionately targeting these pupils.
There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate academic progress. The Education Endowment Foundation has found that, on average, pupils who receive small group tutoring may make four months additional progress. The department’s external evaluation of year two of the NTP, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research, shows that School Led Tutoring has had a positive impact on pupil attainment at both key stage 2 and key stage 4.
The department’s Implementation and Process Evaluation for the third year of the programme found that 78 per cent of senior leaders, teachers and tutors perceived that the NTP had a positive impact on pupils’ attainment and that 74 per cent felt the NTP was helping to reduce the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the cost effectiveness of the National Tutoring Programme.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department is investing over £1 billion in tutoring via its flagship National Tutoring Programme (NTP). This has seen nearly five million tutoring courses commence since the programme started in November 2020, including over two million in each of the last two academic years. In the current academic year, 346,000 courses have started up to 5 October 2023. Just under half of pupils who have received tutoring are disadvantaged, which means that the programme is disproportionately targeting these pupils.
There is extensive evidence that tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate academic progress. The Education Endowment Foundation has found that, on average, pupils who receive small group tutoring may make four months additional progress. The department’s external evaluation of year two of the NTP, carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research, shows that School Led Tutoring has had a positive impact on pupil attainment at both key stage 2 and key stage 4.
The department’s Implementation and Process Evaluation for the third year of the programme found that 78 per cent of senior leaders, teachers and tutors perceived that the NTP had a positive impact on pupils’ attainment and that 74 per cent felt the NTP was helping to reduce the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a pilot scheme of mandatory autism training in education settings.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department considers all teachers as teachers of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). All teachers need to be equipped to teach pupils with SEND. High quality teaching is the single most important in-school factor in improving outcomes for all pupils.
Training and development to support children with SEND begins at the start of a teacher’s career journey, through their Initial Teacher Training (ITT), and is embedded throughout the Early Career Framework (ECF) once qualified. ITT courses must be designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level.
The Teachers’ Standards already set clear expectations that teachers must understand the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND. To identify opportunities to build teacher expertise, the department is undertaking a review of the ITT Core Content Framework (CCF) and ECF. The review, due to be published in early 2024, has an aim to support trainees and Early Career Teachers to be more confident in meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND, through engaging with the most up to date evidence to inform their practice and applying this in the contexts in which they work as new teachers.
To support teachers and leaders at any stage in their career, the department’s Universal Services programme, backed by almost £12 million, provides SEND-specific training for education professionals. Universal Services includes autism-specific training and resources led by the Autism Education Trust, with over 100,000 professionals undertaking autism awareness training since 2022.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of fitting schools with air cleaning technology.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Officials in the department sit on the working group for a project looking at the implications and potential benefits of fitting primary schools with air cleaning technology: the Bradford classroom air cleaning technology (class-ACT) trial. This was funded by the Department of Health and Social Care and managed through the UK Health Security Agency. The study is run from the Centre for Applied Education Research, which is based at the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK. The trial has concluded, and the academic leads intend to publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal in due course.
There is strong evidence from laboratory studies of the efficacy of high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter air cleaning units at removing airborne viruses from the air. Although they help improve air quality, air cleaning units do not reduce CO2 levels or improve ventilation so it’s important that they are not used as a substitute for ventilation or a reason to reduce it.
The department recognises that good ventilation helps to create a healthy indoor environment for staff and pupils. Letting fresh air into indoor spaces can help remove air that contains virus particles which reduces the risk of respiratory illnesses, as well as improves pupils’ alertness and concentration.
Between September 2021 and April 2023, the department delivered over 700,000 CO2 monitors to over 45,000 state-funded schools and colleges. This means that all eligible school and college now has an assigned CO2 monitor for every teaching and childcare space to help them manage their ventilation.
For schools and colleges that identified spaces with sustained high CO2 readings (1500ppm or more) through their monitors, an application process was made available for department funded HEPA filter air cleaning units. This policy was informed by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies Environmental Modelling Group which advises that air cleaning units have limited benefit in spaces that are already adequately ventilated and should only be considered where the ventilation is inadequate and cannot be easily improved. The department has subsequently delivered over 9,000 air cleaning units to over 1,300 settings between January 2022 and April 2023.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the (a) recruitment and (b) retention rates of SEND teaching assistants in (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools in England.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government’s education reforms gave schools the freedom to make their own decisions about recruitment, pay, conditions, and use of teaching assistants. Schools should have the freedom to make these decisions, as they are best placed to understand their pupils’ needs.
The term ‘teaching assistant’ may refer to a range of roles, including classroom assistants, learning mentors, and learning support assistants. Most teaching assistants play a role supporting pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), whether or not SEND is in their job title.
The number of teaching assistants in schools has increased year on year since 2017/18, reaching 281,100 full time equivalent (FTE) teaching assistants working in state funded schools in 2022/23. This is an increase of 5,300 (1.9%) since 2021/22 and is the highest number since the School Workforce Census began in 2011/12.
The number of teaching assistants increased in both primary and secondary schools. There were 185,000 FTE in state funded nursery and primary schools in 2022/23, an increase of 3,500 (1.9%) since 2021/22, and 49,000 FTE in state funded secondary schools in 2022, an increase of 800 (1.7%) since 2021/22.
For schools that have teaching assistant vacancies, the government’s Teaching Vacancies service is a free, national job listing service that is saving schools money and delivering quality candidates. This service can help schools to list vacancies for both permanent and fixed term teaching staff, including teaching assistants.
Schools can also access up to £7,000 in levy funding to train and upskill teaching assistants through the recently revised Level 3 Teaching Assistant apprenticeship.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what she is doing to increase (a) retention and (b) recruitment rates of teaching assistants in (i) primary and (ii) secondary schools in England.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government’s education reforms gave schools the freedom to make their own decisions about recruitment, pay, conditions, and use of teaching assistants. Schools should have the freedom to make these decisions, as they are best placed to understand their pupils’ needs.
The term ‘teaching assistant’ may refer to a range of roles, including classroom assistants, learning mentors, and learning support assistants. Most teaching assistants play a role supporting pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), whether or not SEND is in their job title.
The number of teaching assistants in schools has increased year on year since 2017/18, reaching 281,100 full time equivalent (FTE) teaching assistants working in state funded schools in 2022/23. This is an increase of 5,300 (1.9%) since 2021/22 and is the highest number since the School Workforce Census began in 2011/12.
The number of teaching assistants increased in both primary and secondary schools. There were 185,000 FTE in state funded nursery and primary schools in 2022/23, an increase of 3,500 (1.9%) since 2021/22, and 49,000 FTE in state funded secondary schools in 2022, an increase of 800 (1.7%) since 2021/22.
For schools that have teaching assistant vacancies, the government’s Teaching Vacancies service is a free, national job listing service that is saving schools money and delivering quality candidates. This service can help schools to list vacancies for both permanent and fixed term teaching staff, including teaching assistants.
Schools can also access up to £7,000 in levy funding to train and upskill teaching assistants through the recently revised Level 3 Teaching Assistant apprenticeship.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had recent discussions with headteachers of secondary schools on the level of workloads for teachers in those schools; and whether she is taking steps to improve working conditions for secondary school teachers.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department is committed to working with head teachers and teachers to reduce unnecessary workload and minimise burdens on schools. Part of this commitment is the development of the School Workload Reduction Toolkit which provides practical resources to help reduce workload.
The Department has also conducted numerous research projects with head teachers and teachers to understand what works to reduce workload. The Department regularly surveys and engages directly with the profession to explore a range of policy measures, including working hours.
In addition, the Secretary of State recently announced that the Department will convene a Workload Reduction Taskforce. The group will be made up of experts, teaching unions and head teachers to explore how the Department can go further to support teachers and head teachers to minimise workload for teachers.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether (a) ancillary staff and (b) teaching assistants will receive the same level of pay increase as has been awarded to teachers from September 2023.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Schools have the autonomy to make their own decisions about budgets. For most staff, including Teaching Assistants (TAs), schools have the ability to recruit according to their own circumstances and set pay and conditions.
Many schools pay TAs according to Local Government pay scales. These are set through negotiations between the Local Government Association, which represents the employer, and Local Government trade unions (UNISON, Unite, and the GMB), which represent the employee. Central Government does not have any formal role in these matters.
Local Government employees covered by the National Joint Council for Local Government Services pay and conditions, including most school support staff, have been offered a flat cash uplift of £1,925 from 1 April 2023. This is the same cash uplift as was agreed for the 2022/23 pay deal, which equated to 10.5% at the bottom of the pay range, to 4% at the top. The 2023/24 offer is currently under negotiation.